Star Wars: The Alternate Prequels
by Darth Khan
Summary: Just imagine what they could have been. When I did, this is what I came up with. Hope you enjoy.
1. Turmoil on Coruscant

Star Wars

Episode I: Turmoil on Coruscant

Vicious, genetically identical creatures have attacked the armies of the Republic for years. The noble Jedi Knights, long-standing guardians of peace and justice, are thinning out as they assist the Republic. Spawning from an unknown location, these creatures act on the orders of the sinister Darth Maul.

A rusty spice freighter follows a preset route into space with an escalating purr. Inside the dimly lit bridge, two smugglers observe data on computers. Behind scarred, interlocking doors, there is a passage with circular walls and a walkway of straight edges, lined with wiring. The piloting smugglers hear something heavy from somewhere inside and turn around in suspicion. _What was that? That didn't sound normal._

The doors hiss and slide apart for an ominous figure, hooded and draped in black...Darth Maul. The dim lighting shows a ribbed pattern in his cloak and jag-woven gloves. Threatened, the smugglers aim their blasters at him, but Darth Maul summons an unseen force to bend their weapons and spill sparks. One of them looks at the disjointed metal object in his hand and quietly steps back, but the other is not afraid. "We're on a tight schedule. What do you want from us?"

"Just your ship...no need for either of you." Suddenly, there is a _CRACK_ as the pain-struck smugglers collapse on the floor, eyes wide open in shock. Taking over the spice freighter, their killer drives it to Coruscant.

Cut to the planet's endless cityscape, inside a crowded casino with an angular, interlocking floor pattern. A scaly gambler with glassy bug eyes, wearing an orange padded jacket and ribbed pants, twitches a tiny snout and blinks as though the air seems peculiar. The gambler, a rodian, turns to notice a hooded figure moving through the casino. As the figure steps around a corner, the gambler buzzes a foreign dialect to someone nearby. _Someone is on to us._

Removing his hood is Obi-Wan Kenobi, a young man with short hair, wrapped in the folds of a loose-sleeve beige tunic, some loose pants and brown boots. His neck and wrists are wrapped in the folds of an inner tunic. Obi-Wan wears a belt equipped with four small pouches and a polished, ribbed handlebar...his lightsaber.

Obi-Wan quietly follows two shady creatures down an empty hall, watching them closely. _Let's see...what are these guys up to? Could it be a drug deal? Could it be a slave auction? Not while I'm around. _However, he gets caught by four gangsters behind him. Obi-Wan is brought into the court of Rassth, a trandoshan mobster with the ridged head, marble eyes and manners of a snarling, unfriendly dinosaur.

Rassth wears a gray jacket vest over a crimson shirt with rolled up sleeves, dark green pants, and a bandolier of shiny capsules around one shoulder. As opposed to wearing boots like other smugglers, Rassth instead circles Obi-Wan with his clawed, scaly feet. _Wise Jedi should know better than to poke around and look for gangs, but not this one. He's too young to grasp what we do._

Rassth is a conspiring crime lord who plots to con people out of their Republic credits, leaving plenty of gamblers in debt. Obi-Wan orders him to put a stop to it, but Rassth will not take orders from anyone. Obi-Wan boldly ignites a sky-blue lightsaber with a static purr and is threatened by forty thugs with blasters. _Well Obi-Wan, you've really done it this time. How are you getting out of this one?_

Someone disintegrates Rassth with a blaster, sending his body screeching across the room...Anakin Skywalker, a young man wearing a padded gray pilot uniform and black boots. Anakin helps Obi-Wan escape a resulting shootout and hurries him into a short-winged starship. Four bladed vehicles follow them as they leave, driven by armed gangsters. Anakin takes the ship on risky turns down some tunnels, using a gyroscopic effect in his rotary engines for sharp turns. Soon, they lose the gang. _Wow, this guy really knows how to fly this thing...perhaps a little too well. I would call it unlikely that we're still alive. Unless..._

When Anakin asks what a Jedi Knight was doing in a casino run by mobsters, he's told that stopping corruption is part of the Jedi way. Obi-Wan has a motive to end threats around the galaxy, regardless of trouble, while Anakin is used to hunting corrupt gangsters. It is evident that both are risk-takers. _Anakin may not realize it, but he might have a strong use of our power._

Obi-Wan takes Anakin to the distant Jedi Council, hidden in the cold mountains of Ando Prime. Their ancient, slanted sanctuary and watch towers are etched in sections with a motif of angular symbols. Although obscured by smoky light rays, the typical Jedi would formally wrap in a loose-sleeve tunic and a flowing robe, each wearing their own shades of tan, beige or cocoa. Some wear belts equipped with pouches, energy cells, and edible rations, but some Jedi do not carry lightsabers.

Obi-Wan requests to train Anakin in the ways of the Jedi, but he's a reckless youth in the eyes of the Council, having almost died. Leock, a wolflike bothan Jedi with the muzzle of a lion, can sense much potential in Anakin, who was able to sneak into a gangster court without notice. The Council does allow training for Anakin because every other time Obi-Wan sets out to take a risk, he would always end some threat wherever he goes. Also, Anakin saved him.

For a while, Anakin can't seem to lift a brick with his mind, but one day he discovers that he can. Anakin is struck with inspiration._ This thing...it moved. I have power. Why, this is just...I don't believe it. More to the Jedi, perhaps, if I stick around?_

Anakin learns to move things from twenty feet away, sense movement behind him, and helps Obi-Wan create a momentary snowstorm to scare off creatures attacking a small village...gorge howlers. Anakin is given advice to keep in mind when he spots trouble, words once told to Obi-Wan by his own mentor. _Do, or do not. There is no try._

As months go by, Anakin's hair grows out some. Once he has a grasp on the force and learned of the Jedi tradition, Anakin takes a moment to construct his first lightsaber. With his eyes closed, a pile of tiny pieces begin to take shape. Some crystal lenses, various wiring, and a small magnetic ring come flowing and spiralling together, locking into place inside a curve-tipped chrome handlebar.

As Obi-Wan quotes, this is an elegant weapon for a more civilized age. Anakin ignites it and plays around with it, intrigued by the brilliance and potential of his new toy, ready to save the day. Anakin lightly feels the edge of the intense blade. Then they get a static, blurred hologram from Coruscant, which struggles to adjust focus and send a clear message. _"These clones...they've come for our ruin...oh, the travesty! Wait...THE EYES! HE'S FOUND US! NOOOO-"_

Creatures are attacking a smoky Coruscant, and arriving Jedi must move quick to fight them off. These dark, scaly species use pointy dreadlocks to sense movement all around, dozens of crustacean-esque antennae. They are seen wearing breathing masks with slit-eyed goggles, wrapped in tattered black, and are pouncing on Republic soldiers with black claws. The clones tear through the soldiers with electrical pincer-blades, barking inhuman orders and garbling threats through angular breathing filters.

Leock, a commanding Jedi, tells two others to assist the outnumbered soldiers. He keeps a third close by, a young, black-haired girl in light beige attire, named Sashi. She holds a ring-indented lightsaber with a frostlike finish, emitting a slender violet energy blade through a small flange. Sashi wants to go help the other Jedi in their struggle against these vicious creatures, but Leock assures her that standing by in the event of a sudden attack IS helping, which is all he asks.

Leock gives her a smug, hearty grin, but Sashi sighs. _Coruscant needs our help, and I'm certain that's why we've come. Those awful things have probably seen us by now. We can't just stand here._ Sashi notices dust and smoke gradually clouding their sight. _I have a bad feeling about this._ Suddenly, an ominous figure appears and advances with a red lightsaber...Darth Maul.

Leock ignites his own lightsaber, warning a startled Sashi to stay back as Darth quickly closes in. Darth Maul attacks him fiercely in a smoke cloud without letting up, but each swing misses the bothan, who sprints aside. Leock bats his wavering lightsaber blade to strike the hilt of this newcomer, but Darth Maul is too quick. Darth twirls and slams his red lightsaber at the bothan until they lock blades with a static crackling.

The fierce amber eyes of Leock are met with two devious yellow eyes of this hooded anomaly. _This one burns with hatred...he seeks vengeance. Only one such warrior in the history of this galaxy would seek war so passionately...the Sith. Wait...NO._

Now alarmed to see who he might be dealing with, the bothan gets struck off-guard and is slowly killed, collapsing with a painful grit in his teeth and the sizzle of a crimson energy blade through him. Sashi looks on and screams his name, eyes wide in horror, when Anakin brings his gyro-ship by with Obi-Wan to help her escape.

Once the ship leaves the planet with a hydraulic howl, Anakin is glad he could find her when he did...but Sashi is traumatized. There is a distant look of cold loss in her eyes. Leock had always protected her like a surrogate parent, and now he's gone. Sashi cannot go back, for if she did, she would have followed for sure.

Anakin searches the Jedi archives...he knows for a fact that he could hear the thoughts of Leock._ I must know what a Sith is. How DID Leock just assume that was a Sith? _According to a stack of text lined with old symbols, the dark lords of the Sith were once notorious for their reckless passion, oppression, slavery, starting a number of nasty wars, and killing those foolish enough to cross them. Their malevolent dominion would see no end, and their piercing, skeletal towers would never fall during their time...the Hundred Year Darkness.

However, once a Jedi Knight was discovered among them, the Sith vowed to silence him forever. Instead they would witness the collapse of their cities, and a phenomenal end to their power...in the ruins stood this one Jedi. For thousands of years have the Sith been extinct. Anakin ponders a theory. _So...either this cataclysm was so devastating that only one survived, or it took only one Jedi to destroy entire cities of evil. I wonder if the Jedi might fit the latter._

Anakin learns to use his lightsaber in the Jedi dojo, making risky circular swirls. _Wow. This weapon feels very...gyroscopic, much like steering my starship._ Sashi is impressed to observe what he can do, and challenges him to a practice duel.

The two put their weapons on a low-power setting and then have at it. They swing and bat playfully at one another, each catching the other off-guard at times. Sashi and Anakin initially have a comparable amount of experience, but Anakin's might just surpass hers. Later, Anakin would show her how to drive his gyro-wing ship and spiral through some mountains.

When Anakin is summoned to a starship hangar for two missions with Obi-Wan, Sashi realizes that she fears for him. Sashi had seen the fall of someone far more experienced, but there is a look of longing in her eyes when Anakin leaves. _Oh, Anakin. I can only hope for your safe return. _A reluctant Sashi quietly turns back, crossing her arms. _Leock was a strong, wise Jedi, but even he could not match Darth Maul. If you don't come back, Anakin, who else am I to duel and fly a starship with?_

Obi-Wan and Anakin help the Republic form an alliance with the Mandalorians, armored mercenaries recognized for black, joining visors hiding their faces, some of whom remain silent. The Jedi discuss Coruscant during a cultural banquet...the festive, dramatic song they hear would play again in Xizor's Palace.

Aware these mercenaries are distrustful and skeptical towards them, the Jedi swear never to shame their people again if they can assist on Coruscant...the Jedi Knights were once known for letting all their slaves go, dishonoring the culture of Mandalore.

Cut to Tatooine, a familiar barren world with two suns and a sparse population. Here we meet Cyline, a young, sharp-eyed smuggler with shoulder-length, dark red hair. She wears a brown jacket vest, gray pants with four ribbed sections, black boots, padded brown gloves, and a pair of dust goggles around her head. Cyline is a fierce, competitive jockey racing through a desert, riding a beat-up swoop bike with a bladed fork.

Cyline goes up against a savage gang of reptilian, ridged, horned, and slippery species through some rock formations and jagged crevices. The gang follows her swoop bike into the Dune Sea, before turning right back and getting out of there. Cyline turns off her bike to see if they're still coming, but one of them is talking to the others. Cyline picks up on his garble, which is translated to a warning about something alive here. Cyline turns in question to face the desert. _Huh. I wonder what this "dune serpent" is._

Cyline hears a pattern of raspy taps, moving in and out of earshot, followed by a groan made by something with strong vocal chords. Cyline pauses as a thought slowly dawns on her. _What the hell was that? It sounds like...oh, no._

Right that moment, something huge pops out of the sand and tries to eat her...a ridge-bodied serpent with hooked fangs and eight embedded, olive-black eyes. Cyline frantically fires up her swoop bike and speeds off with a _VOOT_, swooping clear of this lunging demon giving off a shrill howl.

Cyline turns back with a blaster and shoots it numerous times, ineffectively, when the creature stops moving. Its body collapses atop a dune with a cauterized hole through it. Someone steps through the hole with a sky-blue lightsaber, exhausted, and Cyline pulls up her goggles. _It can't be...is that Obi-Wan? IT IS! Oh, it's been too long!_

Holstering her weapon, Cyline approaches Obi-Wan and gives him a hug, before he tells her about Coruscant. Cyline talks with Anakin and Obi-Wan in some bar, eyed by shifty thugs and conniving aliens, some with three eyes.

Obi-Wan has credits for Cyline if she can help them, but Cyline already likes him quite a bit for the adventurous Jedi he always has been and will join them anyway. Obi-Wan once offered her a spot on the Jedi Council, but certain they would never welcome a potential risk-taker into their Order, she refused. Obi-Wan looks on, holding his chin in question. _Hmm...I'm intrigued, because I'm a Jedi and I've always been a risk-taker._

Karo Fett, a suspicious Mandalorian who's followed the Jedi, walks in on them. Karo wears an angular pattern of armor with a violet shine to it, and a tattered cloak. His trust in the Jedi is now shakier than before, finding two of them talking to a smuggler. Mandalorians hate smugglers, believing they have no honor or respect for any culture.

_ These noble Jedi are recruiting low-life smugglers to fight a war. Guardians of peace and justice, right. Perhaps if I come with them, I'll get a nice reward out of it and upgrade my ship._ However, Fett hasn't quite figured out that every other person in the bar is a smuggler, at which point they turn on him with blasters. _Where this armor comes from, you people won't leave a scratch on its iron._

But then a snarling, grunting creature with a ribbed gas mask enters the bar, followed by another identical to it. Karo recognizes a curved weapon in its hand, an electrical claw-blade. _I know that weapon...only a fellow soldier of mine would carry it._ At that point, Fett whips out a blaster in a swirl of his cloak and shoots one of them with a springy particle bolt.

Another comes after them with a claw blade and a war cry, but Obi-Wan kills it quickly with an upward lightsaber slash. Karo Fett lowers the smoking weapon in his hands. _So there ARE worse things than smugglers. I shall inform my comrades. If the Jedi ask us to join in their struggle, then we will. For now._

Anakin and Obi-Wan leave for Coruscant in the gyro-wing ship. Cyline takes the _Outrider_, a rounded and beat-up but functional cargo freighter lined with a serrated edge. A cockpit is bound to its right by two bracing arms, one of them tangent to its rounded front half. Karo Fett follows in his own ship emitting a high-strung rumble, the rounded, reflective, paddle-steered and fully armed _Slave I_.

Once they leave, five spiky, rotary ships driven by the clones catch up with them and engage in a space fight. However, these creatures stand no chance against the rapid firepower of a cunning mercenary, the off-setting ramming of a competitive smuggler, and the tricky, orbiting maneuvers of two risk-taking Jedi.

The four arrive on Coruscant, where they are shocked to witness a number of ribbed, curved skyscrapers collapse into an urban undercity miles below. The hooded Darth Maul watches patiently...with each twist of his grasp, a floor collapses. _Soon this order will fall, just as ours had. Our time is at hand._

There is, indeed, turmoil on Coruscant. Obi-Wan, Anakin and Sashi use booms of the force and lightsaber movement in a tough struggle against the clones, who savagely pounce and wail on them with vibro-claws. The _Outrider_ and _Slave I_ roam the city, mowing down as many of these things as possible. Darth Maul boards a hovering train platform, telling a pale droid to ferry him into the industrious district of the planet.

Anakin and Obi-Wan sneak onto the train, which descends into an endless and sterile complex for energy production and storage. Once the platform slows into a docking bridge, Darth Maul turns to see them igniting their lightsabers. "Heh. You Jedi amuse me..._what good is a lightsaber now?_" Darth Maul summons the force to throw a stolen spice freighter at them. To his inner shock, both Jedi bring it to a halt with a heavy, piercing creak, using the vibrant force and their combined strength.

Darth Maul clicks a button on his wrist...several columns of energy begin acting up, reflecting a violet glow off the pattern-lit walls and interlocked floor pieces. Darth Maul throws his cloak aside to reveal a red face with jagged black tattoos, sharp yellow eyes, and protruding thorns. Obi-Wan is disturbed, but Anakin steps closer, not the least bit intimidated. Darth Maul draws a double-ended lightsaber, a worn hilt with dark ribs and light burns.

Darth ignites his weapon with a static _BEWSH_, and Obi-Wan steps back. _This can't be good. Only four Jedi ever known could wield such a weapon. _Both Jedi draw a lightsaber and engage in devastating combat, during which they are assaulted by streaks of unstable plasma. However, Anakin is quick to notice that Darth Maul is untouched. _Something is keeping those power discharges off him. I wonder if it's that remote on his wrist._

Darth Maul unleashes a swirling combination of clashes on the two Jedi. Their sabers jolt and rattle with a powerful tension. Both Jedi advance on him quickly with their guard up until they are nearly exhausted. Regardless, Anakin boldly defies streaks of plasma with his lightsaber and reaches their enemy. Anakin proves a cunning swordsman against Darth Maul and almost gets the best of him, but loses a hand.

Anakin stumbles back in shock and nearly passes out, but Obi-Wan disarms this dark warrior. "What is this?!" demands Obi-Wan for answers. _"Revenge," _answers Darth Maul, who now backs up to a guardrail, to the suspicion of both Jedi. _"I am the Sith."_

He steps off the edge and out of sight. The Jedi hear a rumbling howl akin to a distressed elephant call, as though something is moving past them and away. Obi-Wan and Anakin shut off their weapons. Obi-Wan looks around, confused but left with one possible conclusion. _He's gone into the void. We might never see him again._ Horrified, Anakin lets out a bleak "NOOOO!"

Obi-Wan helps Anakin walk when his gyro-wing shows up, piloted by Sashi. Their ship navigates the labyrinthine, burning halls of this complex, but they escape moments before the place is completely disintegrated. This results in a blackout across half of Coruscant, prompting a panic-struck Galactic Senate to send their troops after Darth Maul before he commits another atrocity of this magnitude.

Sashi takes a look at Anakin's arm and nearly gets a heart attack. She tells him never to face Darth Maul again, but Anakin knows that they must after the energy cataclysm he caused. Sashi holds his arm, wraps it up for him, and Anakin gets a replacement hand in a medical lab. Before he and Obi-Wan leave to seek out the clones, Sashi runs to them in a starship hangar, insisting that she come along this time for helping them escape certain death.

Elsewhere, a claw-shapen vehicle turns visible in angular patterns. It lands on some dark, desolate planet, where out steps Darth Maul. _The Republic can send out as much of their army as they please, but it won't be enough. They won't win. These will._ He steps into a high view above thousands of clones.


	2. Traitors in the Council

Episode II: Traitors in the Council

The Jedi discover that these cloned creatures breathe methane, and must wear gas masks to survive on certain worlds. They are found inhabiting the only planet where methane is produced...Malastare. The silhouetted _Slave I_ zooms into the dark of this world with a high-strung purr, followed by six vehicles identical to it. Their leader, Karo Fett, tells them to ready their weapon systems as they descend through the clouds and into war.

A short-bearded General Kenobi takes a batallion of armored soldiers and scouting walkers against droves of savage clones, cautious of green methane puddles fuming nearby. The persistent, unrelenting movement of his lightsaber stands out distinctly from the standard aiming and firing of the soldiers, one of whom looks up to him. _I've never seen anyone fight like this. If he doesn't get a scratch without wearing armor, then I believe in him._

Their hydraulic-legged scouting transports manage to withstand the onslaught of clones. Obi-Wan believes his fighting men and women might have a chance, with a jolt from each step of the transports. _These walkers can flatten effectively, but too many creatures have come! Where's Anakin...oh good, there he is._

Anakin and Sashi pursue the claw-ship of Darth Maul in the gyro-wing, hail- storming dozens of clones with crimson blasts. They pass and rumble overhead with a hydraulic howl. The two follow Darth Maul into a cave, and it is here that they find an endless, sterile cloning facility. A quiet Sashi looks around with a creeping unease. _There are literally thousands of clones here. That one just noticed us. Oh, now it's pointing and yelling at us. And now they all know we're here. Lovely. _

This bleak sight is interrupted by a signal from Darth Maul. _"Hello, Jedi. Do you like what you see? You just wait, for there will be thousands more soon enough. They will be everywhere."_ Sashi looks at Anakin, both showing concerned eyes. They find Darth Maul and chase after him up a metal walkway, into a control deck lined with integrated capsule-lights and angular, overlapping steps.

Anakin orders Maul to stop, but Darth casually uses the force to flip eight levers. Anakin and Sashi turn around slowly, and ignite their lightsabers as two dozen creatures come sprinting towards them. The clones hack relentlessly and fiercely at the two like savage barbarians. Darth Maul circles them, watching intently. "Yes, young Skywalker. There is a black hole of hatred in you. As for your little friend..."

An unseen force picks up Sashi by her throat, and flings her into some ribbed power hoses with a helpless moan and a few sparks. Anakin blasts the creatures apart with a furious explosion of the force, disrupting electrical equipment nearby. Then he looks at Sashi laying on the floor and turns to Darth Maul, pointing his lightsaber. _If that just killed her, you're next._

Anakin advances with his lightsaber and vengeful eyes. Darth locks together two of his own hilts, lighting them up with tricky swirls and static flutters. Anakin lets out a war cry, making every move, swing and jab he can to disarm his enemy. Anakin is swiped on the face by a searing red blade of his adversary, at which point he snaps into a destructive rage. Anakin attacks Maul relentlessly until he is finally subdued. "Your hate has made you pow..." he remarks before Anakin stabs him in the throat. The Sith chokes in agony with a vain, dying grasp at the air.

Sashi stirs awake and stands up to the wide eyes and sudden joy of Anakin, who runs to help her. "Sashi? Oh Sashi, you're alive. I'm so glad you're not gone. The force is strong with this one." Anakin informs the soldiers and Obi-Wan about the cloning lab. Kenobi brings in his troops, and together they level this breeding hole to the ground.

He finds Anakin looking over what remains of Darth Maul, out of breath. Both Jedi recall that this guy claimed to be the Sith...but while Obi-Wan is glad that Coruscant can rest easy, the look on Anakin's face is what startles him. _I regret nothing._

Now that the war is over, Sashi and Anakin find some time to get to know each other more. He helps take care of an electrical burn on her arm, without assistance from any medical droids. In turn, Sashi worries about his eyebrow scar, but Anakin tells her that it's only a scratch.

The two smile to each other, they get drinks together, they go hunting together, they race on swoop bikes, and look for drug dealers on Coruscant. Eventually, the two form a relationship and start holding hands. _Anakin's not a bad guy. He never will be. No chance._

Meanwhile, the Galactic Senate takes every measure possible to snuff out crime and corruption from the galaxy forever, now with enough allies to end the fifteen-year clone attacks. Having seen corruption and evil on countless planets by now, Anakin gets on board with it. Shortly after passing some new laws, the Senate hears about smugglers hiding on the moon of Nar Shaddaa, an urban metropolis run by gangs. This could be an opposition, or perhaps even an uprising.

Anakin and Obi-Wan sort out the gathering on the smuggler's moon, confronted by bug-eyed gamblers, slippery, amphibious thieves with low grunts, and shady, gravel-faced smugglers. A pale young woman with braided black hair, a thorned forehead, and some gothic attire, watches Anakin through devious yellow eyes. She talks quietly to a tattooed friend of hers with green snake tails around her shoulders, when Anakin points back at her with a serious look. _Sit tight, I'll sort you out real soon._

Obi-Wan assures everyone that these laws are for protection, to murmurs and sighs of their disappointment. Since the Republic shows no control here, smugglers can do anything they want. Cyline, fellow smuggler of Obi-Wan, is entirely in favor of that so she can work. Obi-Wan tries talking to her, but she walks away. _What happened to the adventurous Obi-Wan I used to know? The Jedi who would put himself in danger, who always went against rules if it meant ending trouble. Why would he support them now?_

The Republic continually puts laws upon laws into effect, limiting projectile weapons to its army, recruiting only men to fill its ranks, enforcing stiff dress codes, overtaxing and limiting supplies, monitoring civilians, and gradually making everything less and less convenient for those trying to live. Something dawns over Obi-Wan until it finally clicks. _Cyline might be right. What am I doing? This Republic we Jedi have long protected...it now charges extra for a small variety of rations._

Obi-Wan joins four other Jedi to give a short speech in the vast court auditorium of the Senate. This inspires many, be them human or wookiee. Kenobi states that all effective laws should actually protect the freedom of the people who serve under the established order.

The Senate can pass any number of laws, but the fact that they can doesn't mean they should. Without the Jedi, would the Republic have survived the clone atrocities? Wouldn't the Jedi have a small say in these laws? Obi-Wan is met with deafening applause and a few looks of disapproval. _Did it work? Sure it did._

Within a week, people notice flickering displays all over Coruscant, posting credit rewards for dead or captured Jedi. Each Jedi had their face monitored from a distance without ever knowing it. When Obi-Wan sees his own poster, he finds himself looking everywhere for anyone, or anything, watching him. It's become evident that any further opposition to the system, any inspiration to defy its authority, are now major threats to its control.

Some bounty hunters come in, including assassins and robots. Up until now, the Jedi would make some of them look like absolute scum. Obi-Wan walks past an armored bounty hunter with his hood on, hoping he didn't stand out. Then he finds a street dealer holding a lightsaber in a shady part of town. Obi-Wan steals it back with a wave of his hand, telling the dealer not to insult the Jedi.

This ring-engraved hilt is lined with a dark granite finish. _This weapon belonged to Master Leock. If I hadn't found it, whose hands would it be in? _Obi-Wan looks at it and hides it in a belt pouch. _What have I done? I've condemned the Jedi. The Council was right...I am reckless._

The Jedi realize that the freedom of the Republic is gone, and some shudder to think what it's become. They can sense a darkening presence in the Senate...a sense of paranoia. Someone sees no limit to his control, and thus no end to what he can do. To him, there's nothing more to governing entire planets than passing laws and loyal men saying "yes".

The armored Mandalorians, now allied with the Republic, have their own reasons to hunt down the Jedi. Not only are their slaves free to roam the galaxy, but they also believe the Jedi turned on the Republic soon after the war ended. Anakin and Sashi don't know it as they leave a bar, but Karo Fett is watching them. _These Jedi would defy their own Republic and simply think they can get away with it? After keeping it safe for over a thousand generations? We shall see._

Later, Karo Fett happens upon Obi-Wan in the urban streets, calling him a traitor for the speech he made to the Republic. Obi-Wan has no intent of defying or leaving it, because taking control of everything was never an ideal established by the Republic.

Karo Fett coldly warns Obi-Wan that any Jedi who interferes with him again will regret it. Anakin interferes to help his friend escape, at which point Karo comes after them both. Karo believes now that all Jedi are a threat for their personal ideas of justice besides passing laws. Anakin takes off with Obi-Wan in his gyroscopic ship.

_Slave I_ emits a high-strung purr and follows Anakin's rotary ship through the dense complex of Coruscant. Anakin spirals, ducks and rolls past traffic and tunnels in an effort to lose the persistent bounty hunter. Right before _Slave I_ takes their ship out, they manage to blend into the surrounding mechanized environment, allowing them to escape into space.

Obi-Wan and Anakin take a moment to breathe. Anakin is baffled that Obi-Wan would consult a powerful Senate to loosen its grip...as he himself once said, stopping corruption is part of the Jedi way. Obi-Wan comments that at least Anakin doesn't have a poster with the words "Dead or Captured" on it.

Anakin swears that he will search the galaxy for corruption no matter what, just as a gloomy thought comes over him. _I haven't heard from Sashi for a while now...I have to find her. She isn't safe. In fact, no Jedi is safe. But if they're wise, they should know what to do now._

A packed club on Nar Shaddaa is owned by a bug-eyed rodian spice dealer. We see trippy laser shows, protocol droids shuffling around, serving bright booze of every color, there are glowing, jagged symbols of Mandalorian, and slow-paced, hypnotic trance plays inside. A distant Cyline walks in for a drink, not too impressed.

_Why is everyone spouting off awkward political talk and walking like they're drunk? Wait...are those teenagers? Are they really trying to sound intelligent to impress girls? Outstanding, kids. How did they get in here, anyways? _Cyline flags down a protocol droid for answers, a frost-silver, curve-indented humanoid machine, which turns to her with sky-blue reflective eyes.

These people are doing spice, an addictive substance making people unable to think on their own...they'll believe everything they're told. Pausing between some words, the droid says that the dealer has made quite a profit off it to own this place.

Cyline is then awkwardly hit on by some guy with a round shaved head, with a grin up to his cheekbones. "Hi! Wanna get spiced?" he yells for her to hear. Cyline sticks the serrated barrel of her blaster in his face. "Hey, hey. Take it easy now. Don't blast my head off."

"Anything valuable inside?" Cyline asks. "Oh, wait...your brain is already cooked. I'm so sorry." This guy's grin does not go away, but his voice raises. "You know what, now you WILL be sorry you ever said that to me. I'm telling my friends."

Cyline makes a small adjustment to her blaster with a remark. "Oh, no. I'm so afraid that you can't do a thing yourself." Before he slaps her, Cyline pulls the trigger, stuns his face, and knocks him flat on the floor. Lowering her weapon, Cyline thinks back to the last time she saw Obi-Wan. _Wow. This actually sucks. A place with some control would be safer. Maybe not complete control, but...what was I doing here?_

Cyline notices a black probe floating outside, adjusting a red eye. _I wonder if that thing saw what happened._ Four bounty hunters walk in, carrying black blaster rifles lined with holes. One is a pale, slender female with a brown ponytail, a red vest, brown pants, and boots...Aurra Sing. Cyline watches her with suspicious eyes, when Aurra spins around to return the look and sits down with the other bounty hunters.

Two of them are skinny black droids with upright cylindrical heads, looking as though they were built from a disorganized heap of rounded parts. Both wear belts of a dozen pouches and carry lengthy, suppressed blasters. These monitor the club with red sensors, garbling words that are easily mistaken for the bubbling of something thick and syrupy.

Another bounty hunter is gravel-faced with dusty dreadlocks, wearing ribbed, brown leather armor and arm bracers...Darj. He carries a piercing, slant-engraved vibro-axe and wears a tattered bandana around his neck. Rather than a simple pole blade, he holds an end with one hand as if it were a projectile weapon. Cyline overhears them plotting with Karo Fett via hologram to capture Obi-Wan. They want the reward credits pretty badly, but Fett tells them to wait and see if this Jedi is worth half a credit.

It is here that a hooded figure enters the club, quickly noticed by the bounty hunters and Cyline. Cyline is afraid for him...under the hood is Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan allows her to leave as the booming, hypnotic trance turns intense. Suddenly they are shot at, starting panic all around.

Obi-Wan fends off these unrelenting bounty hunters with his lightsaber when they are crossed by some reckless spice heads. They commence a fist fight against Aurra Sing and Darj, giving Obi-Wan and Cyline some time to get away. They leave in the _Outrider_ and are followed by some unfriendly ships. The _Outrider _is fired upon with springy particle bolts, prompting Cyline's rounded, emerald astromech droid to plug into the rotary weapon system. Using tricky maneuvers through dense traffic and bridge tunnels, the _Outrider_ and the persistent bounty hunters exchange fire until the smuggling freighter escapes into hyperspace.

Elsewhere, Anakin gets a static hologram in his gyroscopic ship. Four Jedi are hiding in the Tassiff system, perhaps from bounty hunters and potential assassination. They are hiding on a planet of jagged rocks and poison mist, a place too risky to explore. Anakin gets a jolt of hope to find out one of them is female. _SASHI?_

Anakin explores this lifeless planet using a life support pack and a burned gas mask with a serrated jawline. He treks the planet for some time and finds an isolated outpost before his air runs out. Through an angular sliding door, he enters a network of halls lined with pipes, a ribbed floor, and dim lighting. All four Jedi await him inside, and corner him with lightsabers.

Obi-Wan and Cyline find a moment to talk while in hyperspace. Obi-Wan paces the padded hallway of the ship, wondering where he went wrong the last time they spoke. Cyline is just glad that Obi-Wan hasn't tried spice and, in fact, was able to find her when he did. Obi-Wan knows that some rules aren't necessary, but Cyline is never going to any place run by gangs again, not even for a drink.

Of the four Jedi cornering Anakin, one wears a shiny medical breather on his face while another is pale and blindfolded with spiked black hair. The third is Maris Brood, the same pale, black-braided female whom Anakin passed by earlier. "Oh, it's YOU. Never thought you'd be up to anything on a moon full of GANGS." Maris looks right back, shaking her head. "You don't know me at all. But you will."

At that moment, Obi-Wan shows up with Cyline. The four Jedi surrounding Anakin turn on these two and step aside for Karo Fett. As Karo Fett pulls off the helmet, we see a woman in her late twenties with spiky blonde bangs and silver eyes. Karo Fett kills one of the four shady Jedi with a blaster, one who tries to kill Obi-Wan before she does.

The Jedi always thought the Mandalorians to be shady outsiders running their own Empire. At no point was the Republic ever any threat to their culture, but the Jedi Knights were always on to them, for surely they were up to something after letting all their slaves out. Only during the clone attacks were they found harmless otherwise and thus joined the Republic.

The Republic has all respect for the Mandalorians, having survived wars long before the Jedi Order. The Jedi believe in equal rights, coexistence, and protection, but this goes against the culture of Mandalore and the massing restrictions of the Republic. Obi-Wan will not kill her, but she believes a fair fight to the death would bring honor to her homeworld.

Obi-Wan ignites his lightsaber as Karo slides out an extensive pole. She clicks it on, lighting up with fluttering streaks of static plasma. A violet glow reflects off her silver, condemning eyes...then she attacks with a war cry. Obi-Wan fends off a dozen of her sudden clashes. She swipes and strikes down on him wherever she can, but Obi-Wan takes timely strokes of his wavering lightsaber to hold her off. _I could do this all day...but if I'm not careful, she could catch me off-guard real quick. _Karo Fett does not let up. _I'll never trust another Jedi. They had their chance years ago._

Cyline is held at lightsaber-point by Manoc, the Jedi with breathing trouble. Cyline puts her hands down...and quickly blasts him in the neck. Manoc collapses and grips his throat, unable to speak now.

Anakin approaches Maris Brood, who flashes out two slim lightsaber hilts coated in a silvery ceramic. Two rotary attachments allow her to swoosh them intensely like nunchucks. _Impressive. Most impressive._

With a shifting parry of his lightsaber, Anakin holds off the rapid wailing of her blades to disarm her with his own circular strikes...but these hilts rebound his weapon easily. Anakin uses cunning skill to trick her into some risky stances. Maris Brood attacks him relentlessly in a battle of static crackling and jolts without noticing her footing. Maris Brood is quickly wounded, slumps to the ground and passes out. Anakin powers off his weapon. _Perhaps not all Jedi are to be trusted._

Before Obi-Wan is struck down by the Mandalorian, Cyline intervenes and blasts Karo's weapon. Cyline tells Obi-Wan that he's worth infinitely more than all the credits in the galaxy, and he was right about having some control and security. Obi-Wan says that she herself was right before, in that nobody can live without crossing a line. However, Anakin and Karo Fett both want to rid the galaxy of corruption, stopping any who dare cross them. Anakin will side with her if she lets Obi-Wan live.

Obi-Wan tries to tell Anakin that some smugglers are only trying to make a living, but Anakin despises all forms of corruption. Obi-Wan adds that no matter how many laws get passed, there will always be evil somewhere in space. Anakin claims that true evil no longer exists...because he watched it die. Slowly. With a lightsaber through its throat.

Despite Karo's promise for him to live, Obi-Wan will not travel the galaxy with Anakin to destroy crime and expand control everywhere. So with that, the two bid a reluctant farewell. Anakin and Karo depart to hunt down any other Jedi who dare oppose the will of their new governing system. Anakin inhales some of the mist outside and is about to pass out, but Karo Fett helps him breathe again using some equipment.

However, two Jedi present earlier are nowhere to be found. Obi-Wan goes with Cyline on the _Outrider_ to inform the distant Jedi of traitors in the Council. When they arrive, they learn that a group of Jedi were cast out for showing off some...rather extreme potential. But now, they must act to end expanding oppression.


	3. Hunting the Rebels

Star Wars

Episode III: Hunting the Rebels

The camera pans over some stars which are actually the lights of an endless prison, established on a black asteroid. Inside, a man with a shaved head and tattered clothes watches deformed rocks floating by, thousands of miles into space. Two slender guarding creatures open his cell. They walk him down a dimly-lit corridor, snarled, glared and hissed at by numerous life-forms in the shadows. Distant inhuman screams rattle the very walls of the prison. _What's going on? Is it time to die now?_

Through a serrated sliding door, the prisoner is greeted by two sharply dressed officers. "Admiral Kain, welcome back. We have a contract for your leave. Much has changed during your stay." Kain doesn't notice, but his sharp eyes, jagged scars and bulging face would stay with them once they leave. Kain is led to a curved, piercing ship parked on a landing platform, high above a rounded, smoky chasm of rails and dim lights. He throws on a dark, ribbed overcoat with a padded collar. _Only a madman would want me to leave this place..._

Fifty starships form a large convoy in space...Pattern Hope. Their glinting, shiny hulls are made up of pieces forming straight, square indentations. The X-Wing fighter looks as if it were chiseled evenly into a point, streaked red with a curved beak. Four slanted wings lock together using a blocky mechanical servo seen only from the back. The X-Wing is propelled by four sensor-studded engines emitting a violet glow, a grumbling whine, and a static ringing. They are equipped with four ribbed, hydraulic piston cannons.

The Y-Wing is striped gold, uses a curved, slanted cockpit with a flat nose, and is bound by two cylindrical jet engines in a Y-shape. Three Blockade Runners take up half the convoy...lengthy, canister-headed ships with a chiseled bulk and eleven jet engines. Two X-Wing fighters escort the cargo ship _Outrider _into the convoy, passing ships with declining moody howls. Obi-Wan and Cyline look around in awe.

The _Outrider _docks inside one of the Blockade Runners. As a Jedi, Obi-Wan is welcomed by a gathering of soldiers, inspired by the word of his Council. These soldiers wear padded vests, pearly white helmets and carry blasters. Each X-Wing pilot wears an orange flight suit and a rounded helmet with symbol etchings, a flat crescent edge and an amber visor. Four leading senators had left a massive system of control which, by this point, has passed thousands of restrictions.

Their convoy is comprised of prototype vehicles, which were not built in time to foil the Coruscant atrocity years before...but soon, there might be a strict oppression. Obi-Wan knows that Cyline is a threat to the larger government for smuggling outside its laws, wishing that she stay with the rebels while he goes to find Sashi. _He's not going anyhere without me. Not after what we've been through._

Obi-Wan's new X-Wing and Cyline's _Outrider _venture into the polluted junkyards of Ord Mantell, hearing of a black-haired female Jedi using a violet lightsaber. This is a planet where ships go when they're done. Pipes and hoses are sticking out of disjointed freighter ships, heavy shuttle wings now look skeletal, and jet engines get piled on with serrated doors and droids that look like engine parts. Next to a disjointed walker is a watery runoff and the deserted, slanted husk of a sandcrawler.

A rusted starship with a slanted bulk gets carried through the smog in one direction. The ship is clamped solid using a hydraulic claw that gives off an electrical moan and mechanized ticking clanks. This makes Obi-Wan look around the endless junkyard constantly. _I sure hope Sashi is okay._ Cyline and Obi-Wan notice a decaying, cluttered star destroyer, tilted and creaking as though it were sinking. _Has the Republic built those already? What would they do with it?_

They are cornered by four bounty hunters on swoop bikes...Aurra Sing, Darj, and two slender, black droids with upright cylinders for heads. Each of them holds a slender blaster lined with holes. Obi-Wan ignites his lightsaber to protect Cyline, but Aurra Sing shows to be force-sensitive by calling both their weapons into her hands, not amused. Obi-Wan looks on, puzzled. "Wait...you're a Jedi?"

Aurra Sing turns to him with cunning sharp eyes, shaking her head. "Jedi use archaic weapons...not very efficient. Ours will win any fight quickly." Darj closes in with his electrical blade when the junk claw moans by with ticking clanks, holding a ribbed starship husk.

"I dunno...we Jedi are awfully quick AND efficient."

Aurra Sing spins around, alarmed to find who said that...it was Sashi. Sashi steps off the junk lift and ignites her violet lightsaber with a static MOWSH.

Obi-Wan and Cyline get a sense of hope to see her alive again. Droids IG-32 and IG-48 rapidly open fire on her with springy energy pulses, but Sashi slides and rolls too quickly. An underhand swing of her blade rebounds a particle bolt with a TWONG, blasting IG-48 and its weapon in half. Obi-Wan looks on, impressed. _Hopefully she knows who she's dealing with and won't get shot._

Obi-Wan steals back his lightsaber, chops the blaster of Aurra Sing in half, and throws Cyline her weapon. Obi-Wan advances on Aurra to the edge of the sinking star destroyer. He senses Darj coming up behind him with a vibro-blade and sprints to one side. Darj takes a swing at him but hits Aurra by mistake, shocking her senseless and sending her rolling down a junk pit. Obi-Wan looks down the pit and turns to Darj as if to say, "Don't look at me. I didn't do it."

Darj snaps at his own fault and strikes at Obi-Wan relentlessly and viciously to knock him unconscious, when the assassin collapses by the shock of his own weapon. Sashi plays cat-and-mouse with the emotionless IG-32 in the ship's lower levels. The droid monitors the area with a low, static garble. _You cannot hide. The Jedi are finished. _Sashi stays quiet next to a corner as IG-32 steps closer with unsettling clunks.

Its red eye turns to one side as though by logical instinct, but Sashi quickly emerges in a leap and slashes the droid apart before it can attack. Exhausted, Sashi turns her weapon off. Sashi has been searching for her younger brother, a starpilot named Wedge Antilles. When she got his hologram to meet up, Sashi didn't notice it was digitally altered to imply he was hiding in these mountains of junk. Obi-Wan thinks that bounty hunters tampered with it.

Obi-Wan and Cyline take Sashi to the gathering spot of the rebels, where they find Wedge Antilles. We learn that Antilles had joined an X-Wing squad to search for Jedi...but only Wedge could make it back. Something reflective, dark and diamond-like had killed almost all of them with shrill, piercing blasts followed by an unnerving rattle. Its engine would emit an ominous howl akin to the distress cry of an animal.

Sashi is wondering what happened to Anakin, thinking that bounty hunters got the best of him. Once Obi-Wan gets done explaining, she's worried. Anakin had joined the oppressive system and is actively hunting Jedi. This includes her. Sashi now feels cold and broken inside, now that she might never see him again. If she does, then she would be forced to either join him or die.

Sashi tells her nervous brother that he'll make an outstanding X-Wing pilot one day, and many will know his name. Wedge feels that his piloting might not be enough to protect their Republic, but Sashi knows that the force will be with him. Always.

Men willing to serve the larger Republic must endure months of intense training. They must learn to shoot precisely, make cold calculations, and follow orders quickly. Those who pass their training get to use powerful blasters and polished white armor, earning the rank of stormtrooper. Their capsule-jawed helmets resemble faces, with dark lenses that appear to say, "Stay out of my way."

Stormtroopers take over a mining colony on the snowy, industrious world of Mygeeto. They corner a small family to arrest them, but one of the soldiers cannot aim his weapon at them. When the soldiers approach the family, he blasts his own men in a quick struggle. _I can't live like this. What have we become?_ The family before him huddles together in fear, confused. _No, I won't. It's cold enough here as it is._

Every piercing star destroyer must not only work and fly properly without a chance of failure, but must also be sterilized and reflective if any officer is to step aboard. Perhaps the largest, most powerful, and most inspiring to ever leave the construction yards is the armored starship _Nirvana_.

The interlocking bridge doors of the starship _Nirvana_ hiss and slide open, to the attention of every officer sharply dressed and capped in gray. Admiral Kain walks past in his dark trench coat with short, spiked hair. Each officer trembles as he walks by...this is a man who's won a fight against some creature with claws, and does not care if they step out of line. Kain takes the padded, curved chair at the helm of the reflective ship.

Admiral Kain was first aligned with the Republic. This man took extreme actions to enforce its laws, killing at least three people. Kain was locked away for it, isolated on Oovo IV with a thousand other offending species, but he was handed a contract to sign once the Republic had completely changed. For as many laws as it could pass now, this was no longer a Republic run by a Senate...only one stood in charge of everything. None dare tell him what to do.

By contract, Kain had sworn to hunt down anyone opposed to the system once he was let out. The Admiral went hunting the rebels, flying a recent prototype of the twin ion engine class...the TIE _Disruptor_. Without bulky jet engines, this vehicle would instead ionize air to gain a powerful momentum, inspiring many ships to come. Kain was put in charge of _Nirvana _in order to capture the rebel leaders. The ship holds devastating firepower, but the Admiral will not use it unless the order is given.

A skeletal, conniving figure in gray uniform steps up to the Admiral...Senator Tarkin. Tarkin informs him that one of their troopers went rogue and turned on his own men, but the Admiral sits back and assures him that one stormtrooper is not a threat. Tarkin looks uneasy, noticing a heavy sound in the distance...this is either a walker on patrol, or an interlocking motor somewhere. Sitting back casually, the Admiral cannot help but notice how stiff Tarkin is...the Senator is not used to the ship's ambient moan.

Two hooded Jedi are summoned to the bridge...the pale Manoc with a shiny medical breather on his face, and Karon, also pale with red eyes. "How am I certain you won't betray me, Jedi? If you leave this ship, how do I know you won't turn the people against our control?" Both Jedi look at each other, before Manoc speaks in a low static voice. _"Oh, we won't leave. Escape is not our plan."_ Karon steps closer with a piercing look in his eyes. "With us, your ship will be feared forever." Kain eyes them suspiciously, nodding in approval. "Outstanding...dismissed."

Sashi studies wisps of stars from the Blockade Runner, pondering what she may have done that made Anakin leave. She suppresses her emotions, when suddenly there is an electrical explosion down the hall. Armed rebel soldiers rush through to see what's happening. Sashi and Obi-Wan are confused to discover two X-Wings attacking some of their ships. Both Jedi climb into empty gun turrets and frantically open fire on them as alarms howl, but they swerve out of sight.

Captain Ackbar demands that they hold from firing on their own ships, but Obi-Wan knows that these are attacking the convoy, and therefore not allies. Then the _Outrider _flies in to help. Cyline's emerald astromech droid plugs into the rotary gun system to open fire.

The rounded smuggling freighter swerves evasively, pursuing the X-Wings along the dense surface of a ship while Obi-Wan and Sashi constantly fire on them. Cyline flies closer to take out their ships as they veer and spiral through sharp turns. The _Outrider _stays on them and closes in, when they both retreat into hyperspace.

One of these ships had the marks of Red Two...none other than Wedge Antilles. Antilles is presumed to have attacked the rebellion. Obi-Wan looks at the static camera recordings with the soldiers, pointing out that these X-Wings were streaked black and appear more skeletal with a blue jet glow. He compares these to wire-frame computer schematics of their own X-Wings, lighter with red streaks.

On Mon Gazza, stormtroopers and walking transports monitor diverse slaves hacking and picking away in the spice mines. The slaves are kept under blue spotlights, fearing the heavy footfalls of the transports. Through a red cloud of dust appears a short figure...Master Yoda.

Yoda helps these slaves to get back at their oppressors, summoning winds of the force to tear through their ranks. He warns these slaves to get as far from here as they can, watching suspiciously. _Slavery under the Republic, there is. Support the people, they do not. Immoral, this is._

One of the walkers collapses with the impact and ringing of a freight train, before the soldiers corner Yoda with their blasters. He waves a hand and walks away with a nod, as if to say, "Yep, that'll work." They open fire on him, but now cannot shoot effectively, much less quickly. They keep at it even though they can't shoot straight. One stormtrooper approaches him from a distance, without his weapon.

Admiral Kain writes a log in the captain's chair. _I've had a report from Coruscant. No longer do we serve a Republic...we are an Empire. The Emperor wants to build a new weapon, a means of destruction powered by crystals. If I read the schematics correctly, this would take decades to build...so he might have lost it. But if it works, which I doubt, that smug old man claims that every system will be afraid of us. Two Jedi on my ship have found a crystal for this project. Good start._

Kain is approached by three hooded figures...but then they close in on him.

A stormtrooper enters the rebel convoy in a landing shuttle...his name is Roth Hood. The moment he arrives, the soldiers believe that Hood was sent to capture them, but in fact, he wants nothing more than to help restore the Republic. Roth Hood didn't know what he was doing until he realized that he couldn't blast a family. He also knows where the rogue X-Wings came from.

Obi-Wan demands that Hood explain how he knows, how this soldier is different from every other drone, when the soldier steps aside for Yoda. Obi-Wan and Sashi can now trust him. Cyline asks Obi-Wan to stay where he would be safe. "I'll be fine...I am a Jedi. If I don't survive this, we have a rebellion that will." Her eyes widen, afraid.

Roth Hood accompanies Obi-Wan, Yoda and Sashi, taking them to the starship _Nirvana_. If this is where the X-Wings came from, Sashi can prove that her brother did not turn on the rebellion. Captain Ackbar warns that it's a trap when the landing craft docks up inside the lower hangar of the destroyer. However, the ship is empty...there is only a low, ambient whine.

Here they notice two dark X-Wings, the same ones that attacked their convoy. Obi-Wan sees that they are confiscated prototypes of the Republic, except not quite finished. These look longer, slender, serrated, and more skeletal than their own. _If these fighters were complete, they could pack firepower twice as devastating as ours._ Obi-Wan informs Cyline that Wedge Antilles is innocent.

The four notice a red crystal in a cylinder...an artifact etched with jagged runes. Yoda can sense a low moan from the artifact...it's alive. All four look at each other, shocked. Through this artifact, they can see reckless passion and slavery. Through this, there is an ominous entity...the dark side. Seven figures step out of the dark, each hooded and draped in black. _"You cannot leave. This is our ship."_

Obi-Wan, Yoda and Sashi stand together as they close in. Each hooded figure draws a lightsaber, some of which glow a fiery crimson, while others burn like lava. Obi-Wan recalls a report from his Order. _These must be the fallen outcasts. This can't be good. I wonder what their potential is._ Obi-Wan had met Manoc before...he recalls the static, labored breathing of his medical apparatus.

One wears dark armor and gauntlets, peers at Obi-Wan through a curved mask with a single visor, and holds a fiery lightsaber. Another shows black veins and wears industrious goggles, gritting some ratlike teeth as though out of breath. Sashi watches him in silent unease. _Is that guy insane? No wonder he was cast out._ The fourth warrior, once a pale young man with spiked black hair, now glares at them through his blindfold with burning red eyes...Karon.

A fifth Jedi twitches claw-mandibles, looks at them with glowing eyes, and holds two lightsabers...before vanishing and appearing behind them. The ridged face of one particular warrior is overlapped with crescent horns on either side. The final is Maris Brood, to the shock of Obi-Wan. _How is she still standing, when Anakin defeated her?_ Looking at the crystal, he is disturbed to think why. _It's the dark side._

The energy blades of Obi-Wan and Sashi glow cyan and violet...they are not corrupt, not within close range of this artifact. As Obi-Wan recalls, the weapons of these Jedi were once green and gold. The armored outcast orders to release the dark side...the ribbed cylinder is a particle beam, locking with the coordinates of Pattern Hope. The crystal is energized and gives off an ominous howl. _"Your rebellion will not survive...the Empire is OURS. Fallen Jedi, our time has come."_

Inside a Blockade Runner, Wedge Antilles is kept under suspicion. He paces in a holding cell, behind a glowing static barrier. Cyline walks in to let him out. She feels a sense of distrust, suspicion, and paranoia among soldiers in one of the Blockade Runners...the rebels have started shooting at each other.

Wedge Antilles sneaks into his confiscated X-Wing to stop fifty rebel ships from fighting each other. _If I can stun the other ships, I can fix this before it gets any worse. There isn't much time, so I must act quickly. _Wedge takes his X-Wing after any ships blasting each other, in order to avert a self-destructive war.

Roth Hood fends off two dark Jedi to reach Admiral Kain. He convinces Kain that he's emotionless and obedient like every other stormtrooper. Kain asks what good one stormtrooper will do, but the soldier is willing to help in any way possible to stop these ominous Jedi. They quickly blast some corrupt Jedi closing in, when Admiral Kain orders Tarkin to come along...but there is no response. Then he recalls a conniving look on his face from earlier. _If I find out Tarkin has anything to do with this, I will break his neck._

Obi-Wan and Sashi move down an empty hall with slanted walls and rounded barriers. They find a door with letters in Mandalorian, marked with red paint. The door leads to a tunnel, and Obi-Wan welds it shut with his lightsaber. This passage is lined with twenty sides, reflective rails, and supported by curved, serrated columns every ten feet. Two black-draped Jedi appear behind them, when Obi-Wan notices the rails emitting static.

Obi-Wan realizes in horror that they are standing in the barrel of a projectile weapon. A glowing pulse of red energy shoots down the tunnel with a springy grumble and hits Karon in the back, shielding Obi-Wan and Sashi with a scream of agony. Another dark Jedi comes for her, but Obi-Wan knocks him back with the force. Obi-Wan and Sashi escape the energy tunnel to realize what's happening...something is using the _Nirvana_ to blast apart chunks of their ships.

Meanwhile, Yoda is separated from the two, assaulted by empty ships coming at him. Yoda is able to stop a dark X-Wing twenty feet above him, using it to bash a TIE fighter coming straight for him. Admiral Kain and Roth Hood drop in, quickly blasting numerous dark Jedi closing in with searing lightsaber blades. Sashi lunges with her lightsaber and fends off two of them. _These Jedi do not stop coming for us. For each return, there is more anger...more passion to attack._

While fending off a corrupt Jedi on a ledge directly above the void of space, Obi-Wan quickly puts the Force Mind Trick over his head to attack another fiercely. _That should protect you, Sashi._ But when Roth tells the Admiral that he's helping Obi-Wan, Kain calls him a traitor and puts him down with his blaster.

Obi-Wan and Sashi witness the collapse of their soldier ally, and Sashi feels her hopes dashed inside. _We can't leave now. It's over._ Obi-Wan takes a deep breath when he realizes he can't drive the landing shuttle. However, the _Outrider _flies up into the docking bay and helps out, blasting two fallen Jedi in half. Obi-Wan is alarmed, warning Cyline that she should never have come. Then something speaks to him.

_"You cannot escape...YOUR RUIN IS NEAR...DOMINION IS OURS..."_

Admiral Kain aims his weapon at Obi-Wan, who tells him that the star destroyer is consumed by the dark side, and they must leave quickly. An empty, serrated X-Wing lifts off and spirals at Obi-Wan, who slows it above with a rumble of the force. He sets it aside before he passes out. Yoda and Sashi run up the boarding ramp of the _Outrider _as it leaves, while Obi-Wan takes one of the dark X-Wings.

Yoda summons the rumbling force to compress sudden explosions around them so they can escape. Rotary turbolasers inside the hangar are blasting in their direction, hitting parts of the _Nirvana _by mistake. Eventually, the group witnesses the chaotic, jagged splitting of the star destroyer. They reach a safe distance, but Obi-Wan's X-Wing is badly damaged by stray debris.

Unable to believe the cataclysm before his very eyes, Admiral Kain lets out all his despair with a hopeless "NOOOO!" Obi-Wan and Sashi are glad they weren't inside, but Cyline and Yoda watch in shock for anyone inside. Having witnessed the end of the finest ship ever built, Kain takes his new TIE _Disruptor _to the convoy of the rebels. _Those Jedi inspired that rebellion...if those non-conforming monks took over my ship, why should their small opposition survive?_

Obi-Wan enters Pattern Hope to reach his untouched red-streaked X-Wing and takes off after Kain in a struggle to protect the rebels. Wedge Antilles flies in to assist, ready to face his fears. Obi-Wan almost hits the TIE critically when it jams his targeting sensors with a signal. Before he loses hope, Obi-Wan thinks fast as the TIE fighter turns on him. _Do, or do not. There is no try._

Obi-Wan points his X-Wing straight at the TIE _Disruptor _and opens fire, watching the resulting fireball. Obi-Wan and Wedge pause in their ships until the explosion is gone, then everyone applauds for him.

Obi-Wan is praised as a hero, but he would not have survived by now without Wedge, Cyline, Sashi, and Yoda, all of whom he thanks. It's been said that Jedi do not conform to laws...rather, they would protect the Republic so they could pass laws as they please. The rebels pay their respects for Roth Hood, who died for all he has done.

On Coruscant, some teenagers are cornered in an alley, almost arrested by stormtroopers. The kids smile to each other when the soldiers find something painted on a wall, a crescent red seal with a pointed head...the Alliance Starbird. This baffles the defied stormtroopers, before they notice the kids are long gone. With this emblem, there is hope. The rebellion can now inspire and recruit until the tyranny and oppression of this growing Empire has fallen. The Galactic Civil War has begun.


End file.
